Aspen gasped and tried to jump from her seat, her harness quickly yanking her back down. Opening and rubbing her eyes she breathed heavily as she watched the other passengers on the shuttle react with varying levels of distress to their trip over the Bifrost. 

The man directly next to her was violently expelling his lunch into a sick bag. Behind her, she could hear a few of the Marines still whooping and hollering, Tara’s voice among them, their officer now too busy vomiting to try to silence them. 

Trying to get herself under control, she closed her eyes and pressed the back of her head against her seat, pulling on her harness. Breathing in through her nose and out through her mouth steadily grounding her from the adrenaline dumped into her body as a response to the Bifrost. 

The overhead speaker crackled to life again, the pilot’s voice sounding unaffected by what they just experienced, “Bifrost activation was a success, welcome to Alpha Centauri.” 

The shutter on the window next to Aspen retracted and she was treated to a truly amazing sight, all three of Alpha Centauri’s stars were visible to her, the small ruddy light of the red dwarf Proxima Centauri barely visible in from the brilliance of Alpha Centauri A and B. Aspen toggled the light filter on the window and squinted, hoping to somehow catch a glimpse of the Proxima Centauri c, the once hypothetical, and now proven super-earth exoplanet orbiting the small red dwarf.

Just as she swore she could see it, the point of the view from the window changed as the shuttle turned towards the exoplanet, the bulk of the freighter once more commanding the entirety of the view from the window. The thrum of the hyper-helical engines on the shuttle vibrated slightly up through the attachment points of her seat as the pilots started the final leg of what would be Aspen’s journey to the Meili. Aspen settled back in her seat and pulled her tab out, shooting a text to Terrance, pleasantly surprised when the screen indicated the message had been successfully delivered just as fast as it would as if she had been in the Sol system. 

\\\

Aspen meandered along behind the squad of Marines as they marched in lockstep with their officer, her lack of decorum earning her a stink eye from the short man as she slouched under the weight of her backpack and poked at her tab, giggling at a comic Terrance had sent her as they made their way to what they had been instructed was Meili’s dock.

Tara, seemingly taking notice that Aspen did not care about the ire her behavior earned her from the second lieutenant gave her a wink and stuck blew a silent raspberry at her when the officer’s back was turned, causing another fit of giggles to erupt from Aspen. 

Approaching the staging location in front of a pair of several meter high and wide blast doors, Aspen and the group of Marines fell into a holding pattern, watching as forklifts loaded pallets of supplies onto mag-lev platforms, with the Meili also as their destination. Eying the pallets, Aspen could see the majority of the supplies were foodstuffs, palatable water, and spotted her footlocker wedged up against a large barrel labeled “HYGIENIC POWDER.”

Aspen dropped to a knee and pulled her backpack around and opened it, digging out a cinnamon roll and shoved half of it into her mouth, her chewing interrupted by a wordless shout, and she turned around as the Marine officer had some how appeared directly behind her, and poked a finger directly into her chest, “What in the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

Aspen choked down her mouthful of cinnamon roll and rubbed her sternum with her hand, “Uh, eating?”

The second lieutenant pulled at his almost nonexistent hair, his face slowly turning red, “No shit, is it chow time?”

Aspen cocked her head at the question, “We don’t have a chow time.”
A vein bulged in the man’s forehead, “I had you zeroed in before we left Triton, you Navy shits are all the same - zero discipline! Not a “sir,” a salute, or even a proper fucking walking posture while fulfilling Federation orders!”

Aspen waited for the man to finish his tirade, and while she wasn’t looking to make any enemies before she had even set foot on the Meili, she was not one to let someone yell at her, especially when that someone was not technically her superior. 

The second lieutenant’s speech stopped and he stared at her, the group of Marines nearby watching the interaction silently, and she took another bite of her cinnamon roll, causing the man’s already red face to take turn practically purple, “Well, sir,” Aspen spoke with her mouth full, “as I’m sure you know according to the Federation Code of Military Conduct, members of a branch are not beholden to the officers of another branch. So whatever issue you have with me, you can take it up with my CO when we board,” Aspen looked past the man to the dock, “ which ought to be soon.” 

The second lieutenant’s eye twitched, and right as he raised a finger and opened his mouth to reply, a klaxon rang and a rotating green light lit up under the dock door. The large blast doors began to slide open horizontally, a short but loud hiss filled the air as the last of the vacuum of space was filled with air. 

Walking past the second lieutenant, Aspen moved to get her first look at the Meili, the second lieutenant’s argument cut short at the sight of the ship. Sitting atop the largest mag-lev platform Aspen had ever seen was the Meili. With what Aspen estimated to be a length of about two hundred and fifty meters, the tubular ship fit snugly inside the dock in which it sat. The dark metal and ceramic plating covering the ship, giving it the look of one of the old water bound submarines on Earth. Antenna and sensor arrays covered the bow and stern of the ship, with two bulbous hyper-helical engines protruding from its belly. 

Aspen gawked at the Meili as its belly opened up and platform descended, a cargo skiff and several people riding it down. As it reached the bottom, the skiff took off from the platform and the group of people started to walk towards Aspen and the Marines. 

The sight of the group walking towards her gave Aspen pause, her head cocking to the side slightly as she tried to process what she was looking at. 

Dressed in the standard Navy uniform pants, several people in the group were wearing only t-shirts rather than the typical blouse, and the man in front was the strangest of all, older to middle ages, he was wearing an obnoxiously brightly colored floral button up shirt over a white tank top, the large mustache gracing his upper lip gave her instant “cool uncle” vibes, though how these people got away with being out of uniform she did not know. 

Turning to look at the Marine officer to see his reaction to the group walking their way, she was unsurprised to find him practically foaming at the mouth. While amusing, she idly wondered how high his blood pressure must be and how close to having a stroke he currently was - surely if the man reacted to things like this often he was bound for one. 

The group stopped in front of Aspen and the Marines, the second lieutenant apparently speechless, the man in the bright shirt gave Aspen a warm smile, eyeing her uniform, “You must be Conway, the new SRT,” he extended his hand for a handshake, “I’m Captain Marcus, welcome to the Meili.”

Aspen cocked her head to the side slightly, wanting to instinctively snap a salute at the man, then thought better of it and took his hand, her eyes bulging slightly at the strength of his grip, “That’s me, sir.”

Captain Marcus’ smile widened slightly, noticing Aspen’s struggle to not salute, “No need for saluting on my ship Corpsman, just respect. And of course,” the captain looked past Aspen, “Our Marines. How nice of you all to join us, I’ve never had Marines on the ship before. I ordered extra red crayons for you all, so I hope you’re hungry.”

The Captain’s joke was met with laughter both from the Marines and the group behind him. The second lieutenant was practically steaming now, and he gave Captain Marcus a nasty look, “You’re the captain,” he asked through clenched teeth.

Captain Marcus nodded, then looked down at his shirt, “Oh, excuse me,” he pulled a silver eagle from his pocket and pinned it to his shirt,  “is that better?”

The second lieutenant threw his hands up in the air, “Fine. Whatever. I’m going to fucking hate this assignment.”

Captain Marcus guffawed, “Whatever you say,” he turned to Aspen, “walk with me to the dockmaster’s office and we’ll talk about the Meili, “ he motioned to the group behind him, “if you would show these lovely Marines to their quarters, I’m going to go take care of some business. Do try to not tease them too much.”

Captain Marcus set off towards the office area of the dock without waiting for Aspen to respond, and she had to jog a few paces to catch up, catching Tara’s face as she went by, her face incredulous, she gave a shrug in return.

Captain Marcus pulled the silver eagle off his shirt and stuck it back into his pocket, whistling a tune as he walked along, “So, Conway. This is your first assignment out of Ascension school, who’d you piss off to get sent to fringe space?”

Aspen pulled on the sleeve of her uniform shirt a bit, “Piss off, sir?” 

Captain Marcus snorted, “I”ve been in the Navy for twenty seven years, I know you don’t get sent to the fringe for no reason.”

“I was given orders from the Placement A.I, the guy in the office said it was because of my family history.”

“Because you’re an orphan, you mean,” Captain Marcus stopped walking and turned to look at Aspen directly, sighing as she grimaced at his words, “you have no family so you were shoved to fringe space. I’m not gonna mince it for you Conway, the Fed’s A.I screwed you over with this assignment.”

Aspen nodded slowly, eyes to the floor, “I looked it up, I could get transferred in five years maybe.”

Captain Marcus put a hand on Aspen's shoulder, it was surprisingly heavy, “I hate to see young people such as yourself stuck on assignments like this,” he cleared his throat, “the Meili is not a great assignment - hell some might even say it’s a terrible one. I have been her captain for seven years now, and in that time I have come to realize… Fringe space assignments are for fuckups and rejects.”

Aspen’s eyebrows came together in confusion, “Sir?”

Captain Marcus gave her a small smile, “If you hadn’t already noticed,” he motioned at himself, “ us fringe space people are different. The A.I probably saw you as a wildcard. No family, middling grades, no commission, and certified in a role that needed to be filled? Perfect for fringe space. Now, “ the captain held up a finger, “just because we are different doesn't mean we do not do our job. We expect you to work hard and do your best to fit in, but the regular decorum of the Federation’s Navy isn’t for a crew like ours.”

Aspen nodded slowly, “I honestly haven’t ever been one to be all prim and proper.”

The captain gave her a warm smile, “Oh, I read your file. Your entire file. I know,” he started walking towards the offices once more, “come on, I do actually need to sign some stuff, then we’ll get you settled in sick bay with Dr. Holt.”